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Mikes Tips
As an inventor, I tend to come up with new ways to solve problems that come up in life or in my work, and as a CT yankee, I tend to solve the problems with things that are in my extensive pile of stuff.
The following is a random bunch of things that I think others may be interested in.
Enjoy!
Mike
|  | | | Some stuff to ponder |
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aluminum tape again
|  | | | Re-Sealing that can |
I needed to varnish a piece of wood, and as usual, the cover of the can was stuck so strongly (had been previously opened) that I had to damage the seal to get the cover off. Faced with loosing the rest of the mostly full gallon of varnish, I pulled out the roll of aluminum tape again, and was able to seal the top. I will see how well it works when I next have to open the can.
(Posted 5/12/2008 by mikey) |
Handy use for Aluminum tape.
Need to make a template for a bracket? Aluminum tape works pretty good.
Remove the backing and fold sticky side to sticky side. A little stiff, holds its shape fairly well and flattens back out so a pattern can be transfered to the desired material. It can be cut with scissors, and when you get it into place, small mounting holes can be outlined by slightly pressing the aluminum tape around the edges of the hole or sticking a pointed object through the tape into the hole.
It worked very well for the bracket shown, as there wasn't a real good way to measure distances between the 3 mounting holes. |  | | | Making a pattern out of aluminum tape. |
(Posted 4/3/2008 by highwater) |
Rear view Video cameras
|  | | | Rear view Video Cameras |
Even before the rear MPG display, I played with using video cameras as a way to potentially replace the drag inducing rear view mirrors. I had acquired some LCD video displays and color cameras at the MIT electronics flea market. The cameras had a rather narrow field of view, so I set up four of them looking out the lower rear hatch window. I built a joystick operated 4 camera switch so I could easily select the camera. The display worked well except for when the sun shined directly on it, so I had a removable sun shield. The cameras worked very well during the day, or under street lights, but even with the automatic appture control, did not have the low light sensitivity to see much more than headlights of approaching cars. Of course to totally replace the rear view side mirrors, I would have needed two more cameras. With the correct choice of cameras,field of view, and a bright monitor, two side cameras should easily replace the side mirrors.
Several years later,at Hybridfest, I saw Bill Kinneys Insight that was set up with exactly that system, which seemed to work very well.
(Posted 3/1/2008 by mikey) |
Real time external MPG display
|  | | | Rear Real Time MPG display |
Back in 2002, I decided that I wanted to let the other drivers on the road know what I was getting for MPG.
I mounted a tiny color video camera on a bent piece of solid # 14 wire, which I stuck into the slot between the dash bezel and the steering column bezel. The camera was carefully focused so that only the bargraph and MPG displays were in the field of view. I made a waterproof rear LCD video display and fed the video signal to the monitor.
It was a bit too dark for full sunlight viewing, but was quite readable under most other conditions.
I hated it. I felt compelled to drive in my most efficient way, since everyone was watching, and finally took it out for that reason. Now if I were a hard core hypermiler that always got super numbers, it would have been another story.This was before MIMA, so maybe I need to dig it back out?
(Posted 2/28/2008 by mikey) |
Motorizing a snow blower chute
|  | | | remote chute operator |
Tired of cranking the chute with one hand while trying to control your snow blower with the other.
If you have a 12V light on the blower, this will work with no batteries. Cover the motors with a small plastic grocery bag when using.
The chute raise/lower motor is mounted to the chute with a bracket, and uses a square steel bar for the actuator. The bar is attached to the motor shaft with a setscrew.
The chute rotation motor is coupled to the chute rotation screw with a simple dual set screw coupling. The motor floats free, with an aluminum fork to stop the rotation. This type of attachment allows lots of slop and misalignment, and is easy to make. This has been part of my snowblower for the past 5 years.
(Posted 2/24/2008 by mikey) |
How I splice audio cables
|  | | | Splicing delicate shielded wires |
I got some nice amplified speakers the other day, and expected to plug them into the two audio out jacks on the back of my TV.I take it out of the box and find that it has a cable with a 1/8 " stereo plug, not the RCA plugs that my TV has.The speakers were designed for PC audio or gaming.
I dig into my huge cable case and find a nice dual color coded RCA audio cable that was cut off to make an audio input cable for a device I built.Never throw away anything, so heres the proof that you should save everything that can be used again.
Audio cables are a difficult splice because the wires are so delicate. This splice is stronger than the wires on either end, fully insulates and encapsulates and waterproofs the splice, and is tough as nails. works for other splices as well.
(Posted 2/19/2008 by mikey) |
Fixing small plastic gears
|  | | | Armatron disassembled |
I pulled out my old favorite toy, the Armatron, to show a young friend. It did not work. The gripper would not work. I set out to fix it.
After taking it apart the wrong way,by trying to disassemble the arm a section at a time, I soon figured out the right way, first remove the whole arm from the shoulder. The arm has two screws holding the square Armatron cover to the main shoulder area. Once that is removed, the two screws with big washers at the main shoulder joint are to be removed next. Then gently bend out the thin plate from the right side of the arm(side with no gear rack). This will allow you to totally disconnect the arm from the body. The arm sections are easily disassembled by removing the screws and covers. Don't forget where each shaft goes, and watch out that the shafts don't all fall out when you remove the covers.Some of the shafts are used in a not intuitive way.
This is probably the most mechanically complex toy ever made,and is a really chalenging take it apart/put it back together puzzle.
The base and control joysticks all are driven by a single motor. each axis of the joystick has two speeds and a neutral.
If there is an interest, I can expand this armatron examination, and get into the whole drive train, as the gear shifting and power take off is really interesting.
The problem was discovered,I found that a 10 tooth gear had split, and the gear was spinning on the shaft. I took a brass rod and drilled then bored a hole in it that was .001" smaller than the gear OD. Then I turned the brass rod OD so I had a thin brass tube. I tapered the inlet side, then pressed it over the broken gear. Then I pressed the gear back onto the shaft. The gear is still split, but will not slip on the shaft and the grippers now work properly.
An old friend with a home built CNC machine made me a replacement. Thanks Bill, my toy is fixed.
(Posted 12/23/2007 by mikey) |
Making some custom solar panels
|  | | | Grabbing some sunlight |
Bare solar cells are brittle, hard to make reliable connections to,only output 0.5V and need a cover to protect them if used outdoors.
I picked up some cute solar cells that were designed to be used in outdoor solar powered night lights. They are actually a complete solar panel. They will output 4.7V with no load, and at their max current of ~85MA, the voltage is about 3.2V.
The cells have plated copper flat wire terminals, and are pretty rugged. A guy in Foxboro MA is selling them on e-bay right now.
E-bay item
I found that 4 cells in series will start and run two small 50ma@12V fans.
Made an air cooled garden hat for Sue.
Next I wanted to run a 4" 12V fan , so I took a 1/8" thick piece of PVC sheet and glued 8 of the cells to it with silicone calk. This panel puts out 165ma and develops ~8V across the 250MA fan, which runs it nicely, but not at full power.
I then made a new panel for my solar power demo hat, which has 3 4" fans. The panel will not run the fans alone, but will charge the NIMH 1100MAH AA cells that are embedded into the hat. The panel outputs ~400MA and will allow several hours of runtime.
The final panel is a reconfigurable output 22.5 Watt panel. Each string of 7 cells outputs 32V OC @ 85ma, and is terminated at the terminal area.
The available configurations:
256V @ 85mA
128V @170mA
64V @340mA
32V @680mA
The price of ~$4.12/Watt is not cheap compared to larger ready made panels, but the voltage range of 3.2 to 4.5V allows a single cell to power a pic microcontroller, and the ease of use and mounting allow custom panels to be made in any configuration you like.
Next project is to connect the 256V panel to the Insight HV pack for parking lot topping off of the battery charge.
More on this project :
Plugging into the sun blog
(Posted 9/16/2007 by mikey) |
Auto brake light
|  | | | MIMA regen auto brake light |
Calpod asked that a regen based brake light activation be designed for MIMA equipped Insights, as the car can slow down pretty fast if full regen is applied.
Without the brake lights to warn the guy behind you that you are slowing down, you could get rear ended if he is not awake.
The software is already working, and the Violet MIMA aux wire will pull low when the regen is greater than 15A.
The problem was how to interface to the car. If the brake switch was shorted by a relay, that would work, but as soon as the brake light is activated, the car will try to apply full regen, as that signal feeds to the MCM.
In looking at the schematics, I chose the connector in the passenger side B column as the best place to tie in. This spot is where the drive signal for the high mounted brake light is located. With this circuit, only the high mounted brake light will activate when MIMA or the car is over 15A of regen.
Any small 12V relay with SPDT contacts should work.
(Posted 8/9/2007 by mikey) |
C-band dish solar furnace
|  | | | Canning Tomatoes with the sun |
Back in the 60's I was given a nice rugged parabolic dish, and had covered it with mirrors. It works pretty well. I have reached aluminum melting temperatures, and run a steam engine.
Old radar dishes are not readily available but old C band dishes are.
Start with an old C-band satellite dish. Cut Bathroom mirror tile into 2" or 3" inch squares.
Glue tiles to dish with silicone rubber,then glue aluminum foil to the back with a thin coating of silicone to seal out moisture, and protect the mirrors back.The small gap between the mirrors will allow eventual total curing of the silicone, but it takes several months for a full cure. The layer of aluminum foil stops the degradation of the mirrors rear surfaces. My dish has been outdoors for over 30 years and the mirrors are still like new.
The horizontal and vertical drives are run by a sun tracking servo amp that keeps it pointed at the sun.
A schematic of the basic tracker is available on the downloads page:Simple Tracker schematic
This generic servo will operate on 12-24VDC, and will run dc motors over the same voltage range. The power transistors need to be mounted on a good heatsink with electrical isolation between the collectors and the heatsink. The servo gain pot will want to be tuned for best accuracy of tracking without oscillation.
The sensing photo detectors are mounted at + and - 45 degrees to form a half bridge.The + of one detector connecting to the - of the other. This "shorted" connection forms a current bridge where the two photo diode currents cancel when evenly illuminated, and change polarity and amplitude of output when unbalanced. The idea is to have the servo always drive the dish to the null point.
I Canned some tomatoes this morning. The 8 quarts of water and tomatoes reached boiling in 6 minutes, but then it was boiling too fast. I had to drape news papers over the mirrors to turn down the heat. I will need to make an adjustable shade for the thing, so I can adjust the boil to a slow steady one. Tracker worked well.I need a steam engine for the thing, and I could make some electricity or pump water.
More information on this project:
Plugging into the sun blog
(Posted 6/6/2007 by mikey) |
Insight Battery pack turbo cooler
|  | | | Insight Battery Turbo Cooler |
As any owner will tell you, when you are pumping charge in and out of the pack with MIMA, it can get hot, especially in summer. The battery is cooled with a two speed fan that draws air into the battery pack from behind the passenger seat inlet vent.MIMA will force the two fans on at full speed when the temperature of the battery gets over 95F.
I made a Turbo Cooler for my pack by ducting the passenger foot AC outlet to the battery pack input duct. I set the fan on high, and the duct to foot only. The driver side vent is ducttaped over, so that all the air comes out of the passenger side.
The increased air flow helps a lot, with mild MIMA use, but if you are really pushing the hybrid ratio to the electric side, the pack can still get into the 100 F range. Because of the large thermal mass of the heavy batteries, it takes a lot to cool them even a few degrees. To Turbo Cool the pack, I wait till I am going down hill, so the power is nearly free, and turn on the AC to full, set to 60 F. A long hill and you can cool the pack several degrees.
(Posted 6/5/2007 by mikey) |
Put your exercize to good use?
Like most Americans I eat too much and do not get enough exercise. I also watch TV too much.
I modified an exercise bike to produce electricity. The electricity runs a tv, radio, lights, fans, to use the power that I am generating. Old car alternator, with a a small battery to get the field excited to start the generating. 250 Watts is a lot of work.
For a light workout pump during the show, and rest during the commercials, For a full workout watch a DVD movie and pump the whole time. |  | | | Dont stop till the commertial |
(Posted 5/13/2007 by mikey) |
Some uses of laser pointers
We all should have a couple of laser pointers sitting in the "used to be cool toy box" There are many uses for those lasers other than the usual pointer application.
Detecting things:
I have used them for generating an electrical signal when detecting things. I needed a flow meter to detect the flow rate of the heat exchanger for my solar heating system. To buy a unit with high accuracy, and a readout, was in the several hundred dollar range. I found this cute German made home water meter for less than $100. It only had one pulse output for every gallon, which was not sufficiently accurate to measure the sub gallon per minute rates that were sometmes necessary. I mounted a laser pointer so that it shined through the notches on the rotating disk that was right on the flow turbine, so it turned hundreds of times to each gallon of flow, and gave multiple puldes per revolution. I mounted a photodetector in a blackened tube, and glued a lens on the front of the tube. The detector assembly was focused on the notches of the rotating disk. and was able to generate a pulse stream for each rotation. This pulse was buffered, amplified and converted to a digital pulse that was read by the controlling computer to regulate the speed of the pump to produce a constant flow rate.
|  | | | Detecting a rotating disk |
(Posted 5/13/2007 by mikey) |
Black tape and PVC cement
|  | | | Making it one piece |
I have been using black electrical tape since I was a kid.
My Dad was a DIY of considerable skill, and I used to play in the basement and be his helper, he always had several rolls of tape so it became one of my toys.
Black tape has many uses, and has certain properties that make it a versatile tool.
Insulation:
The main use of black electrical tape is to cover bare electrical wires. If applied correctly, the tape will last for many years. If applied incorrectly, it will start to separate and get sticky in short order. Each wrap is good for 200-600V depending on the thickness, so a carefully taped wire can have better insulation than the wires on either side.
The tape is designed to be pliable and stretch so it can conform to irregular surfaces. The trick to making a tight long lasting covering with tape is in when and how much you stretch it.
Temperature extremes will make black tape stretch and contract, loosening the adhesion in the layers. To prevent this, when making the final wrap, always do it with nearly zero tension in the tape, to prevent the end from shrinking back when heated. A final and powerful way to make the taped joint stay together, is to use PVC pipe cement to coat the outer layer of tape and glue it together. The cement sets up in a few minutes, and will protect the tape for many years even outdoors in the weather, and the joint is waterproof.
The inner wraps need to be fairly tight so air is not trapped in side.
The quality of black tape is a measure of how much stretch can be put into the tape before it breaks. Never stretch to more than 70% of the breaking point, as breaking point and pliability drop when the tape joint gets cold, and the tape could crack through all layers.
(Posted 5/13/2007 by mikey) |
Those useful Prius subpacks
Prius NIMH batteries are called on to produce over 100A, and can be charged at 100A as well. I have been collecting the batteries and have quite a few, and have been finding some nice uses for them. I have several vehicles that I only use occasionally, and keeping a good 12V battery in each is wasteful, and is not that good for the batteries. I tend to carry a battery to the vehicle whenever I use it, and remove it when finished. Lugging a 50-75 lb battery over 100 feet is a lot of work. Just to see how it would work, I connected two 7.2V prius subpacks in series, and using a 100A Anderson connector, plugged them into a dodge caravan. The car cranked just like a new 12V battery. I put a connector on my 1965 John Deer tractor, and bang, it cranks effortlessly.
My lawn tractor uses the same configuration. The batteries do not need charge regulation, as the alternator or vehicle charging system will regulate to 13.6V , about 80% SOC on the NIMH.
A 5 lb starting battery compared to a 50 lb one. What a labor saver.
|  | | | prius subpacks start van |
(Posted 5/13/2007 by mikey) |
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